Bug Description

The warning message from the ffmpeg program needs to be updated. It should instead say
"*** THIS PROGRAM IS DEPRECATED ***\n"
"This program is only provided for compatibility "
"and will be removed in a future release. Please "
"use avconv instead.\n"

This is patched in Debian. See [1].

[Impact] - Users are seeing a different message everytime they run the ffmpeg program. The original message is causing confusion amongst general users of the ffmpeg who are not aware that the ffmpeg program provided in Ubuntu is the ffmpeg program originally made available from the Libav project.

[Development Fix] - Message just needs to be updated. See [1]. Note that the ffmpeg binary has been dropped completely in the development tree in libav.

[Stable Fix] - See [1].

[Test Case] - Just run the ffmpeg program. Running 'ffmpeg -L' is sufficient to see the warning. The original warning reads,
"This program is not developed anymore and is only "
"provided for compatibility. Use avconv instead "
"(see Changelog for the list of incompatible changes).\n"
The new warning should read,
"*** THIS PROGRAM IS DEPRECATED ***\n"
"This program is only provided for compatibility "
"and will be removed in a future release. Please "
"use avconv instead.\n"

Attached is a patch that rewords the message as: "Ubuntu now uses libav instead of FFmpeg. The ffmpeg binary is only provided for compatibility. Use avconv instead (see Changelog for the list of incompatible changes)."

The attachment "libav-now-uses-avconv-ubuntu.patch" of this bug report has been identified as being a patch. The ubuntu-reviewers team has been subscribed to the bug report so that they can review the patch. In the event that this is in fact not a patch you can resolve this situation by removing the tag 'patch' from the bug report and editing the attachment so that it is not flagged as a patch. Additionally, if you are member of the ubuntu-reviewers team please also unsubscribe the team from this bug report.

[This is an automated message performed by a Launchpad user owned by Brian Murray. Please contact him regarding any issues with the action taken in this bug report.]

Well, that's half the truth. Libav 0.7, which is shipped in precise, *does* ship a /usr/bin/ffmpeg binary that behaves more pretty much exactly as the binary that was shipped in libav 0.6. This is done to not break applications in ubuntu that rely on that behavior.

The /usr/bin/ffmpeg binary from FFmpeg, however, did change command line options and positional behavior. For this reason, I don't think that applying the patch from Comment #3 is a good idea.

Thank you Mr. Tartler for the explanation, certainly more useful than the current message received.
Users should be conveyed some of that instead of the implied notion that the FFmpeg project is dead, intended or not, as to a reason not to continue to use the 'ffmpeg' command

It's implied that the message is referring to FFmpeg. Many users don't even know they are using libav when they are using "ffmpeg" (I often see this in #ffmpeg IRC and bug report tool). Users may equate the binary name ffmpeg with the project name FFmpeg and assume that FFmpeg is dead with such a message. As a developer the difference between libav and FFmpeg are obvious to you, but think in terms of the general user.

The problem is with "This program is not developed anymore". If that section were removed then I at least would be fine with the rest.

All in all this *issue* is just a speck of dust, still, considering the high degree of intelligence of those concerned I fail to see why the point is not 'gotten'

I think this or there-abouts would be appropriate

This program is only being provided for compatibility purposes and doesn't reflect the current active state of the FFmpeg project.
It is now recommended to use avconv instead (see Changelog for the list of incompatible changes).

Reinhard, this definitely should be worded better. I believe the proper term to use that everyone (users, developer, system adminstrators, etc.) understand is 'deprecated.'

Here's my suggestion.

*** THIS PROGRAM IS DEPRECATED ***
This program will be removed in a future release. Please use avconv instead (see Changelog for the list of incompatible changes).

The compatibility purposes is implied with the term 'deprecated' and it's now clear that it will be removed in the future (thus everyone should migrate their scripts, etc. to avconv). Also, the suggestion to go to 'Changelog' should point to the full path to Changelog, or better yet, some migration guide (if one exists).

I agree with reagle. From a user's perspective, this is a really low move on the part of the libav/ubuntu/debian team. Regardless of the semantics, the name ffmpeg is inevitably linked to the ffmpeg.org project. The message "THIS PROGRAM IS DEPRECATED" is highly deceptive, especially now that ffmpeg and libav have started to diverge a bit more. While it may be true that the /usr/bin/ffmpeg link in ubuntu is deprecated, it's just an outright lie to say that the ffmpeg program is deprecated. That's like saying making a link from msword to lowriter, and then stating that Microsoft Office is deprecated.

Anyway, it's been, what, 3 or 4 versions of Ubuntu since this switch was made? Why not just deprecate it already? Or is there some fear that then users will start installing the real ffmpeg (e.g. from https://launchpad.net/~jon-severinsson/+archive/ffmpeg), and using that instead?

lol ffmpeg version 0.8.8-4:0.8.8-0ubuntu0.12.04.1 - bug is present again
Seriously, maintainer should chill. You want to make everything competitive - use libav name instead and have ffmpeg as ffmpeg and not a name for libav. This isn't childs play right?
There are mplayer and mplayer2 in repositories even though they are direct competitors as well. I mean damn. We have to use ppa/compile ourselves because someone didn't stay in kirdengarden long enough.

I have to mention a bit more serious issue with libav team's activities regarding ffmpeg... It is a copyright infringement to say something like:
ffmpeg version 0.8.6-6:0.8.6-1ubuntu2, Copyright (c) 2000-2013 the Libav developers
because Libav is not a Copyright holder of ffmpeg, but FFmpeg is.
Claiming a copyright on something that is not yours is a criminal act, in most of the countries around the world. Debian/Ubuntu should be aware of that, since if anyone, from FFmpeg team, decides to sue Libav, they could easily win the case (no to mention they could also sue the Debian/Ubuntu community). It is obvious that Libav team made a move that is at least malapert and insolent, confusing everyone who's been using FFmpeg so far.
If Libav team doesn't want to change the false copyright message or even worse the claim that "ffmpeg is deprecated" or "not developed anymore", it is Debian's/Ubuntu's responsibility to remove such a package from their repositories.

This program is not, nor has it ever been, "deprecated". A fork can't "deprecate" the original while the original is still in development. Therefore, this message is *still* highly misleading.

After a long day of compiling my own ffmpeg and recompiling the programs I had that depended on libav after the libav fork consistently failed to produce working results in an RTMP streaming setup, I decided to create my own little script that runs whenever anything on my system tries to run "avconv" instead of "ffmpeg."

I won't bore you with it but it begins "*** THIS PROGRAM IS CRAP ***" and goes from there.